The Journey to the South Pole and the Breaking of the Ice Barrier

The Journey to the South Pole and the Breaking of the Ice Barrier represents the most audacious and perilous phase of the Nautilus's underwater tour of the world, an undertaking that simultaneously fulfills Captain Nemo's ambition to conquer the last unexplored region on Earth and pushes his vessel and its crew to the absolute limits of survival. This two-part event—first the triumphant discovery of the pole, then the desperate fight against entombment in ice—reveals the full scope of Nemo's daring, his capacity for symbolic sovereignty, and the terrifying vulnerability of even the most advanced machine when pitted against nature's most elemental forces.

Background and Decision

By mid-March 1868, the Nautilus had been driving southward for weeks, crossing the Antarctic Circle on March 16 near eight o'clock in the morning. Ice completely surrounded the ship, closing off the horizon, yet Captain Nemo pressed on, navigating from passageway to passageway with consummate skill. When the Nautilus finally encountered the great Ice Bank—an endless, immovable barrier of fused ice mountains—on March 18, Ned Land declared that no one could clear it, that the captain would have to turn back. But Nemo revealed a plan that stunned even Professor Aronnax: instead of going over the ice, he would go under it. He explained that for each foot of iceberg above the sea, three more lay submerged, and since these ice mountains did not exceed a height of 100 meters, they sank only to a depth of 300 meters—a mere nothing for the Nautilus. The only difficulty lay in staying submerged for several days without renewing the air supply, but the ship's huge air tanks could supply all the oxygen needed. Aronnax, initially skeptical, was swept up by the logic and daring of the plan, and he found himself urging the captain forward.

The Subpolar Passage and the Discovery of Open Sea

Preparations were swift. The Nautilus's powerful pumps forced air down into the tanks and stored it under high pressure. Near four o'clock on March 18, the platform hatches were closed, and the ship submerged. At a depth of about 300 meters, it cruised beneath the undulating surface of the Ice Bank, then sank deeper still to 800 meters, where the water temperature was several degrees warmer than at the surface. Now in open water, the Nautilus took a direct course for the pole along the 52nd meridian, covering the remaining twenty-two and a half degrees of latitude—slightly more than 500 leagues—at an average speed of twenty-six miles per hour. For part of the night, Aronnax and Conseil watched through the lounge windows as the sea, lit by the beacon's electric rays, revealed only deserted depths. The next day, March 19, the Nautilus began to rise cautiously, but it repeatedly bumped against the underbelly of the Ice Bank, which at one point was 4,000 feet thick. By the evening of March 19, the ice was still between 400 and 500 meters deep, but it was shrinking. Finally, at six o'clock in the morning on March 20, Captain Nemo appeared in the lounge and announced, "Open sea!" Aronnax rushed onto the platform to see a sea stretching into the distance, with only a few sparse floes and moving icebergs, hosts of birds in the air, and the thermometer marking 3° centigrade.

The Claiming of the South Pole

On March 21, the day of the equinox, the sun was due to disappear below the horizon for six months. Captain Nemo knew that if he could not take the sun's altitude that day, he would not be able to try again for another half year. The weather cleared, and after breakfast the captain, Aronnax, Conseil, and two crewmen took the skiff ashore to a solitary islet. They climbed a steep, half-crystal, half-basalt peak, a two-hour ascent through air reeking with sulfurous fumes from smoke holes. At the summit, Nemo carefully determined the elevation with his barometer. At 11:45, the sun appeared as a golden disk, dispersing its last rays over the deserted continent. Nemo used a spyglass with a reticular eyepiece to observe the orb sinking along a very extended diagonal. Aronnax held the chronometer. At noon, when the lower half of the sun's disk disappeared exactly as the chronometer said noon, Nemo pronounced in a solemn voice, "The South Pole!" He then recited a litany of explorers who had attempted to reach this point—from the Dutchman Gheritk in 1600 to Sir James Clark Ross in 1842—and declared that on this 21st day of March 1868, he, Captain Nemo, had reached the South Pole at 90° and claimed this entire part of the globe, equal to one-sixth of the known continents, in his own name. He unfurled a black flag bearing a gold "N" on its quartered bunting and called out to the setting sun, "Farewell, O sun! Disappear, O radiant orb! Retire beneath this open sea, and let six months of night spread their shadows over my new domains!"

The Imprisonment in the Ice

The return journey began on March 22. The Nautilus sank to a depth of 1,000 feet and headed due north at fifteen miles per hour, cruising under the immense frozen carapace of the Ice Bank. But at three o'clock in the morning on March 23, a violent collision threw Aronnax from his bed. The Nautilus had heeled over sharply, lying on its starboard side. Captain Nemo explained that an enormous block of ice—an entire mountain—had toppled over, sliding under the hull and raising the ship into less congested strata. The Nautilus was now imprisoned in a genuine tunnel of ice about twenty meters wide, with dazzling walls of ice on both sides, above, and below. The ship could move ahead or astern, but when it tried to go forward, it bumped into another block. The tunnel had no way out at that end. The Nautilus reversed course, but soon a second collision astern revealed that the iceberg had closed off every exit. They were boxed in.

The Struggle for Survival

Captain Nemo calmly outlined the two ways of dying: crushing or asphyxiation. The air tanks could supply oxygen for only two more days. The only hope was to cut through the ice wall. The Nautilus grounded on the lower shelf at a depth of 350 meters, and the crew, including Ned Land and Conseil, began digging an immense trench in the ice. The work was brutally hard, and the water began to solidify around them, threatening to crush the hull. Nemo ordered boiling water to be injected into the surrounding water, which delayed the freezing. But the air grew fouler by the hour. By March 27, only four meters of ice remained, but the air tanks were nearly empty. Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land were all suffocating. In a final desperate gamble, Nemo ordered the Nautilus to be raised from its icy bed and positioned above the trench. The ballast tanks were filled with 100 cubic meters of water, increasing the ship's weight by 100,000 kilograms. The ice cracked with an odd ripping sound, and the Nautilus sank through the barrier like a cannonball. The pumps immediately expelled the water, and the ship rose. At the surface, the hatches were torn open, and waves of clean air poured into every part of the Nautilus.

Narrative Role and Significance

The journey to the South Pole and the subsequent ice escape form the climax of the Nautilus's voyage, both geographically and thematically. The discovery of the pole represents the ultimate expression of Captain Nemo's independence and his rejection of all earthly authority: he claims the entire region in his own name, not in the name of any nation. The black flag with the gold "N" is the emblem of his personal sovereignty, a declaration that he is a law unto himself. Yet the ice imprisonment that follows immediately humbles this pride, demonstrating that even the most powerful machine and the most determined will can be brought to the brink of annihilation by the indifferent forces of nature. The escape, achieved through a combination of engineering brilliance, collective labor, and sheer luck, reaffirms the Nautilus's resilience but also foreshadows the limits of human mastery over the sea. The event also deepens the bond between Aronnax and his companions, particularly Ned Land, whose harpooning skills and physical strength prove crucial in the digging, and it reveals the depths of Nemo's character: his calm rationality in the face of death, his willingness to share the suffering of his crew, and his unyielding determination to push beyond every boundary.